Hyperliquid Labs has completed the seven-day unstaking process for 3.75 million HYPE tokens worth about $330 million, allowing the tokens linked to a private institutional deal to move between wallets.
Onchain Lens reported on Oct. 7 that the tokens had reached Hyperliquid Labs’ spot balance. The team then sent 1.875 million HYPE across five wallets, with each address initially receiving 375,000 tokens.
The tokens were reportedly connected to an institutional over-the-counter, or OTC, transaction. In an OTC deal, the buyer and seller arrange the trade privately instead of placing the entire order on a public exchange.
The buyer, purchase price and any resale restrictions have not been disclosed.
Earlier reports linked the 3.75 million HYPE block to an institutional OTC agreement involving Hyperliquid’s team. Hyperliquid co-founder iliensinc reportedly confirmed in the project’s Discord that the entire allocation was covered by an institutional arrangement.
The latest wallet activity shows that the initial five transfers were not necessarily the final destination of the tokens.
Lookonchain later reported that 1.25 million HYPE, worth around $110.57 million at the time, had been placed back into staking.
Another 1.875 million HYPE remained in one wallet, while 625,000 HYPE worth roughly $55 million was held in another address.
Together, those balances account for the full 3.75 million HYPE allocation.
The five wallets should therefore not automatically be considered five separate buyers. Blockchain records can show where tokens move, but they do not reveal the actual owner or the terms of a private transaction.
Hyperliquid’s staking rules explain why the tokens became available this week.
The protocol requires a seven-day waiting period when HYPE is moved from staking back into a spot balance. The process cannot be accelerated.
The unstaking process for the 3.75 million HYPE began around Sept. 30, meaning the tokens became available around Oct. 7.
The $330 million figure represents the market value of the tokens at the time of the reports. It is not the confirmed value of the private OTC transaction because neither the buyer nor the negotiated price has been disclosed.
Hyperliquid Labs has also not confirmed whether the buyer received a discount or paid a premium. There is no public information showing whether the tokens are subject to a lockup or other restrictions.
The transaction is also part of a larger HYPE supply structure.
An SEC filing for a HYPE investment product says 23.8% of the original one billion-token supply was allocated to core contributors, with some of those tokens continuing to vest after an initial lockup.
About 31% was distributed to users through the genesis allocation, while another 38.89% was reserved for future emissions and rewards.
HYPE was trading around $87.07, down 4.32% over 24 hours and 2.10% over seven days at the time of writing.
CoinGecko data showed the token moving between roughly $86.67 and $91.29 over the previous 24 hours, with daily trading volume around $772.88 million.
With about 220 million HYPE in circulation, the token had a market capitalization of roughly $19.37 billion at that price.
HYPE closed around $88.47 on Oct. 7, compared with $91.91 on Oct. 6 and $94.15 on Oct. 5. This means the decline had already started before all of the latest wallet movements were completed.
There is no clear evidence that the OTC transaction caused the price drop. The deal was arranged privately, and 1.25 million of the 3.75 million HYPE was later returned to staking.
Previous HYPE team distributions have followed different patterns.
In August, Hyperliquid Labs moved 433,025 HYPE through addresses connected to Flowdesk, OKX and Bybit. On-chain tracking later showed that 75,000 HYPE from that allocation was exchanged for USDC, providing evidence that at least part of that batch was sold.
A larger HYPE unlock in September also showed why token unlocks should not automatically be treated as immediate selling pressure. Making tokens available to holders does not mean the entire unlocked amount is sent to exchanges or sold.
The identity of the buyer behind the latest 3.75 million HYPE deal remains unknown.
Hyperliquid Strategies CEO David Schamis has now publicly denied that his company bought the allocation.
Schamis’ denial came after speculation that Hyperliquid Strategies could be connected to the transaction because the company operates as a HYPE-focused treasury firm.
With that company ruling itself out, no public information currently identifies the institutional buyer.
Further movements from the wallets could provide more clues, but blockchain activity alone cannot confirm who ultimately owns the tokens or whether any transfers represent a sale.
For the 1.25 million HYPE already returned to staking, moving those tokens back to a spot balance would start another seven-day waiting period under Hyperliquid’s current staking rules.
For now, the main development is that the seven-day unstaking process has ended, while the institution involved in the roughly $330 million HYPE transaction remains undisclosed.
